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When I hear you sing, it gets hard to breathe/Can't help but think every song's about me. And every line, every word that I write/You are the muse in the back of my mind
The other day at a friend’s house, I was speaking about how often people miss out on secret gems by artists because the artist has bad music ~vibes~ despite actually not making bad music. This happens for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, people only know a few of their mainstream, more generic or overplayed songs. Other times, they have a cringey online presence (I write a bit more about that here), a bad digital footprint, or some combination of the aforementioned that has rendered it culturally “embarrassing” to like their music. I get it—that’s how culture works, but when it comes to me—if a song is good, I’ma listen to it (yes, there are ample exceptions). The first example I shared of a hidden gem by an artist whose been banished to the cringe-asylum was “Why” by Shawn Mendes, off of his 2018 self-titled magnum opus. My friend was like, huh?
Shawn Mendes (2018) is really good (Where Were You In The Morning?, Lost in Japan are some other standouts from the self-titled project) but “Why” is Shawn at his artistic peak. He and Teddy Geiger aced the assignment in every category. Hazy, steady and contemplative production, cohesive storytelling, and that achey, airy and oneirophrenic falsetto. Straight off of John Mayer’s hard drive, this is Shawn’s singer-songwriter bag—he sounds effortless. He sounds like an artist.
Email Was Only the Beginning
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My favorite part is the end. After a Gravity-inspired guitar interlude, the chorus repeats once more, this time trading most of the backgrounds for an electro layered choral arrangement reminiscent of the Imogen Heap’s “Hide And Seek” or the last few seconds of Brandy’s “When You Touch Me.” The last line of “Why” is the same as the first, effectively closing (or just restarting) the harrowing loop of unspoken attraction Shawn laments. It almost makes you want to hit play again and hop back into the cycle yourself. Why do we put each other through hell?/Why can’t we just get over ourselves?
A few hours after our conversation about the cringe-asylum, “Why” came on the queue (yes, purposeful) and the same friend I had been speaking with was bopping her head back and forth. “What song is this?” she asked. With the slightest, knowing smirk, I told her it was the Shawn Mendes track I mentioned earlier. Her response? “Damn, you got me. This shit is good.”
So, send CD Radio to a friend and tell them to subscribe so I can put them on to some good shit they might be missing out on. And listen to “Why” by Shawn Mendes 🙂
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CD Radio is a platform where I muse about the music I’m listening to it and why I love it. In this digitally gluttonous/hyperconsumptive/painfully oversaturated music and media climate, a lot of people are struggling to keep up with music or find good music at all. CD Radio is my answer to that problem— I’m helping you cut through the noise and not just discover but properly experience great music because there’s still so much of it, and not enough space and time to revel in it. Think of me as scraping off the top for you.